As cinemagoers were enjoying his story-telling on the big screen in 2002, with Spider-Man and Panic Room, Koepp was adding a further string to his bow with his TV show creation, Hack. Starring David Morse and Andre Braugher, the show followed the exploits of ex-cop Mike Olshansky who, after losing his job and family to a raft of corruption charges, builds a new life as a Philadelphia cab driver-turned-vigilante. The show ran for two seasons before facing cancellation in 2004, but not before boasting appearances by George Dzundza (No Way Out, Basic Instinct), Matt Czuchry (The Good Wife), Bebe Neuwirth (Frasier, The Faculty), Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad), and writer/director/actress Jennifer Westfeldt.
Since the cancellation of Hack, Koepp has continued to mix screenwriting jobs with leading his own projects – including Secret Window, Ghost Town, and Premium Rush – working from his own script each time, often with regular collaborator John Kamps. Topping up his screenwriting slate, Koepp’s 2014 will begin with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, in which he takes co-writer credit with newcomer Adam Cozad.
As is often the case with big budget studio productions, the script for this film passed through the hands of several writers before finding its final home on the desk of David Koepp. Paramount was keen to capitalize on the success of the 2002 film The Sum Of All Fears, but were unable to successfully put a project together building on the Tom Clancy character-driven franchise, which already included The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger.
Though screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive, Snow White And The Huntsman, 47 Ronin) developed an original concept, the project stalled until Adam Cozad developed an original script. Anthony Peckham performed some re-writes, followed by Steven Zaillian – although he withdrew from the process after just a few weeks. After the exit of Zaillian (who had previously written Clear And Present Danger), David Koepp arrived to re-write the script with Cozad. The film is the first to feature the character of Jack Ryan, without being based on a specific book in Tom Clancy’s Ryan series, and sees Chris Pine take on the iconic lead role, previously occupied by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. Kevin Costner and Keira Knightley co-star along with Kenneth Branagh, who also directs.
Never one to be pigeonholed, however, it seems that Koepp is now broadening his scope to include directing scripts that were largely written by someone other than himself. While Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit bursts onto screens around the world this month, Koepp will be settled in the director’s chair on the set of Mortdecai – an action comedy adapted from the novel by Kyril Bonfiglioli, by Eric Aronson. The story of the fictional Charles Mortdecai, an art dealer searching for a stolen painting supposedly containing a secret code that leads to hidden Nazi gold, the film stars Johnny Depp, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul Bettany. The literary source material – The Mortdecai Trilogy – has been categorized by critics around the world as dry satire and black humour, suggesting that this will be a role that plays to the strengths of lead actor Johnny Depp, who previously collaborated with David Koepp on the Stephen King adaptation, Secret Window.
As the unstoppable career of Koepp rolls on, the potential of this quiet movie maestro is seemingly unending. Without fanfare or media scrums, he has stealthily dominated our cinema screens for over 25 five years, with no sign of slowing down. The reason for his influence is simple – the combined global box office of David Koepp scripted films exceeds $5 billion, which makes him one of the most successful screenwriters of all time.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is released in Canada and the US on January 17th, 2014, and in the UK on January 24th, 2014.
